Cynthia Kudji, and her daughter, Jasmine have just graduated from medical school at the same time.
Dr. Kudji, who’s originally from Ghana, West Africa is a single mom. She put her dreams of becoming a doctor on hold when she was pregnant with her daughter at just 23-years-old, then went on to become a nurse and worked as an RN and Nurse Practitioner for almost a decade before deciding to attend medical school.
Both are now graduates of the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS) St. Kitts and Maine and Louisiana State University (LSU), respectively, with medical degrees in Family Medicine for Cynthia and General Surgery for Jasmine.
In an interview with The UMHS Endeavor, Dr Kudjie explained that she initially had no plans to enter the medical field due to a lack of representation in the field.
“I remember when we were young there were TV shows like The Cosby Show and A Different World,” she said to UMHS. “Seeing African Americans in college or being successful was like firsts. So, for me, it wasn’t like ‘Oh, yes, I want to be a physician’. It was more like, ‘Oh, no, can I really do this? Or, ‘Am I smart enough to do it?”
Dr Kydjie and her daughter definitely had challenges as nontraditional students with Jasmine having to adjust to being so far from her mother.
“I think initially it was difficult because my mom and I have always been really close so I had to get used to the distance, we had to learn how to FaceTime and Skype each other, so we were Skyping each other every day and whenever I had struggles and she had struggles, we just had to learn to communicate from a distance,” the younger Dr. Kudji said. “But I think over time we figured it out.”
They both credit the support of close family and friends in addition to faculty members.
“I always tell people we laugh together, we study together, we cry together,” said Jasmine. “I think medical school is one of those experiences that you don’t truly understand until you’re in it. Sometimes people struggle to find someone who relates to their struggles, so for that person to be my mom was extremely helpful.”
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